'The Slap' hitting US television screens

By Laura Parker

13 February 2015 — 11:45pm

The pivotal moment in the 2011 television series The Slap takes place against a decidedly Australian backdrop: beers, snags and backyard cricket at a suburban barbecue in the height of summer. An adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas' 2008 bestselling novel of the same name, The Slap was sharp, suspenseful television that painted a uniquely Australian picture of middle-class multiculturalism. Last year, US television network NBC announced it was working on its own adaptation of the series - only this time, the action will take place in Brooklyn, New York, in a well-heeled neighbourhood of renovated brownstones, weekend flea markets and absolutely no cargo shorts.

The new series, which premiered in the US on Thursday, was written in part by playwright and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz, whose previous writing credits include The West Wing, Alias and Brothers & Sisters. Tony Ayres, co-founder of Australian production house Matchbox Pictures, which produced The Slap in Australia, is on board as executive producer.

Melissa George will reprise her role as Rosie in the US remake of The Slap.

"The American version will tell the story differently, sure, but the kinds of things it talks about are as relevant to a US audience now as the Australian version of the show was back when it first aired," he says.

The Slap is the latest in a long line of Australian television shows that have been remade for US audiences, some with more success than others. Kath & Kim aired in the US in 2004 and 2006 on cable, but was remade for NBC in 2008 with Selma Blair and Molly Shannon. The show ran for one season before it was cancelled. Richard Roxburgh's Rake also aired in the US before Fox commissioned a US version starring Greg Kinnear; it, too, was cancelled after its first season. SBS One's Wilfred and ABC's parody series Review with Myles Barlow have had more luck; the US version of Wilfred, starring Elijah Wood and adapted by Family Guy showrunner David Zuckerman, ran for four healthy seasons on FX. The US remake of Review with Myles Barlow, renamed Review and starring comedian Andy Daly, premiered last March on Comedy Central and has been renewed for a second season.

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Melissa George, left, performs a scene with Dylan Schombing as Hugo and Thandie Newton as Aisha in the US version of The Slap.Credit:NBC

One possible reason why shows such as Wilfred and Review with Myles Barlow might lend themselves better to adaptation is that they are based on relatively simple comedic conceits – a buddy comedy where one buddy is actually a guy in a dog suit, for example – and therefore easier to appropriate than shows that require more than an elementary knowledge of the Australian way of life to appreciate. But talking about success and failure in US television is relative to the sheer amount of programming actually being produced. Few shows manage a mass audience in a country with an estimated 115.6 million television households and 1390 channels spanning broadcast, free-to-air, cable and IPTV. Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory are oddities in a heavily colonised landscape.

The internet is partly to blame: in 2014, US viewership of live television dropped by 12 minutes a day compared with the previous year, a shift attributed to the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. Scrambling to keep up, US television networks are increasingly looking to foreign markets to find the next Homeland (originally an Israeli drama)or The Office (poached from Britain). The only problem is that television executives do not trust their audiences to watch something to which they cannot relate.

"The consensus is that Americans will not tolerate dubbing, black and white, or subtitles," Karen Hornick, a professor of pop culture and television studies at New York University, says. "So [networks] would much rather take a good idea from abroad and try to Americanise it, which often means dumbing it down."

The original Rake, for example, was loose, shaggy, and unconcerned with tying things up neatly in the way US television often feels it must. But Kinnear in the US remake lacked Roxburgh's larrikin charm and ultimately failed to convince anyone he was in, in fact, a rake. (Hornick's hypothesis is that Kinnear has become too entrenched in sweet, boy-next-door roles.)

ABC comedy show Kath & Kim was remade for an American audience but only screened for one season.

At times, it is unclear why networks bother with a remake at all. Gracepoint, the US version of the hit British crime drama Broadchurch, is almost a facsimile of the original. David Tennant stars in both series, and everything from the dialogue to how each shot is framed is the same. The only obvious addition is a garish promo site that invites viewers to guess who the killer is. This kind of inauthenticity, both on and off the screen, could be why so many US remakes fail. Audiences can tell the difference between a show with real artistic vision and one steered by a committee of network executives.

Those that succeed are the ones that demonstrate some willingness to be at least a little bit different from their source material. All in the Family, Homeland and The Office have all taken creative risks in their direction, and it has paid off.

Molly Shannon, left, took the role of Kath, and Selma Blair that of Kim in the US version of Kath & Kim.Credit:Mitchell Haaseth

"When the American version of The Office came out, it was clear that a lot of things had changed – it was much sweeter and more sentimental than its British counterpart," Hornick says. "But that's what American culture is like, and audiences appreciated that. All art needs to start from an honest place."

It is easy to see why The Slap caught the eye of NBC executives. Notwithstanding the violence and under-age sex, at its heart the show is really an exploration of the overwhelmingly Western preoccupation with overprotecting children, as much a fixation in the US as in Australia (arguably more so). "The taboo about hitting your own kids, let alone someone else's kids, is so intense and so strong these days in the US that it's definitely a point of conversation," Hornick says.

Richard Roxburgh's larrikin charm is a key factor in the success of Rake.

"Everyone has an opinion when it comes to parenting styles," Ayres says. "It's not unique to Australia, nor are the other issues raised in the show. Marriage, friendship, loyalty – these are all things a contemporary society grapples with."

"Apart from changing the cricket bat to a baseball bat, I can't see that there would need to be any significant differences [in the US remake]. It's a story about complex people, about hypocrisies and failings, and we have those no matter where we live."

The fact the series is set in Brooklyn is a good thing, according to Hornick. She says this reverberates with how many Americans like to see themselves. The casting also suggests NBC is serious about repeating The Slap's local success: Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton and Zachary Quinto will star alongside Australian actress Melissa George, who will reprise her role from the Australian series with a somewhat raspy American accent.

"This says to me that NBC is putting some effort into doing this right," Hornick said. "We might see some of that elusive artistic vision I was talking about, after all."